Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The holidays are here. It's time to get that Christmas list out and start picking up the gifts. For those that need to get a present for the new computer user, or the I-can-spell-math-but-can't-do-it person, there are two ebooks available for purchase on my website below. For those family gatherings an evening of story telling is an option. Journey into the Surreal is a collection of short, funny, family style stories and is in the ebook also available here:http://thesurrealwriter.tripod.com/

Remember, it is important to get your Christmas shopping done early and the sooner you pick up one of these ebooks, the sooner you can cross those names off your list. Also, the sooner you pick up one, the sooner I can go out and finish off my list also.Ron

Friday, November 10, 2006

I have a very special guest blogger, Dorothy Thompson, author of "A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook," For those of us that write but know nothing of promotion, this is the bible of reference. If you are or want to be, a writer, pick up this book. If your computer isn't working right, click on the link above.

Ron

In self promoting, where should one start?

Hi, Ron, and thanks for having me! When you choose to self-promote your book, you make that choice to either give your book (or eBook) all you got, or let it die. You are the book’s life force, and it is you who has to have that dedication, that perseverance, to do everything in your power to make sure the book does well. If you fail, then you only have yourself to blame.

Every book or eBook on this planet, if written well, has the potential to be a big money-maker. It all depends on how you promote. I have seen books with under a hundred pages do so well for the author that she appeared on television talk shows and national magazines. But, this author does a bang-up job of promoting. The secret to her success is that she found her niche, and pounced on it. You have to find that hook, and use it.

If I had to pick one thing that was the most important in self-promotion, it would be to have the best search-friendly selling page for your book or eBook that you muster. Once you have that in place, talk it up! Find some unique angle that makes people want to visit your website, thus buy your book or eBook. Word of mouth is the best kind of promotion you can use, but if you don’t have a well-designed selling page, what’s the use?

A well-designed selling page consists of placing relevant search words and phrases dotted throughout. What kinds of search words would people use to find your website? Use them. If you’d like to see how I set up my selling page for my eBook, A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook, go to www.thewriterslife.net/promoteebook.html.

Is there a guide to writing press releases?

There is a standard format you can use, but also keep in mind to use those same search words and phrases throughout. Publicity Insider puts out a wonderful template you can use to go by. You can see it at http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp.

My eBook, as you know, boasts over 40 places to send your press releases. The key is to send your press releases to as many press release sites that you can to up your search engine ranking. And, don’t just stop with one. Keep them coming. Every time you can tie your eBook in with a newsworthy topic, let her rip. I know of someone (and I’m sure there’s many more people out there like her) that sends a press release off once a month. She ties anything romantic-related, but newsworthy, in with her book and sends it off. Her sales are going through the roof!

Does this book apply only to the ebook format?

Good question, Ron. This eBook to promote eBooks can be used for print books as well. All the strategies I used in this eBook are great for promoting any kind of book. I discuss how to turn your website into a powerful selling tool, how to set up a selling page that will bring in potential buyers, how to set up your own personal guerilla marketing plan, how to promote yourself through radio interviews, lots of neat stuff, and the best part about it is that every single promotional venue is absolutely free. I show people how self-publishing is one of the most viable, not to mention profitable, ways of earning added income over the Internet there is. All the secrets to great promotion is inside my eBook. If you use every single one of the methods in the eBook to promote your own eBook, you’ll see those sales!

Monday, November 06, 2006

According to the TV, I have a doctor. I have been to Walgreens and another big drug store and did not find any doctors for sale. Even if there was, I wouldn't buy one. I don't want one. All they do is take half your paycheck and give you scrips to spend the other half on pills.

We, as Americans, spend the last half of our short lives downing pills. There's a pill to go to sleep, a pill to make you thin, clean out arteries, make you cry and heaven only knows what else. We are a drug induced nation!! I believe very strongly that this is lowering our life expectancy. I find it amazing how few pills my parents and grandparents took and how old they lived to be!!

None of them worried about how long an erection lasted, or even if they got one. It was nothing for them to pull an apple off the tree and just eat it. Oh my goodness, they did not wash it! I grew up taking strawberries and wild grapes along with a lot of other wild fruits and never did get sick. I've pulled up potatoes and wiped the dirt off and eaten them. Hmm, I guess I was supposed to get sick.

The bacon I eat, the water I drink, and good grief, even the high cholesterol foods has not made me deathly ill nor increased my weight to the point of needing a crane to lift me up. What is more important is that I do not stress over these things. Let the surgeon general have a heart attack worring over what color my food is. Take those damn drug ads off the tv and out of the house and maybe, just maybe, the kids won't find their own drugs. As it is now, it's fine for the kids to take drugs because look at mom and dad's medicine cabinent.

We are a drug induced, tv influenced nation with cell phones growing out of our ears. I guess that's why we can't think straight, interact socially or hear what is going on around us.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

We live in the age of wonder. We've gne from the mechanical age to the electrical age to the electronic and have entered the strange world of biotechnology. This can be proven very easily. Take some of that stuff the government really doesn't want you to have. Let's see, what do they call it? Sorry, it has been a long time since I've even seen it. Oh that's right, money. Most of it is now housed in some museum someplace.I think its called Fort Knox.

The reason we the people aren't allowed that stuff is because it has magic properties. Observe if you will, what happens when someone who has somehow acquired some of this magic paper walks into a store that sells cellular phones. He/she will hand this magic paper to the person behind the counter and poof! like magic, a cell phone grows out of their ear! I am surprised they are able to sleep at night with this new added appendage. I would imagine it has a breakin period. I find it amazing how many of these biological appendages have maliciously attached themselves to others.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

I live in a modest (under $60k) house. There are three out of four here working and one is working two jobs. But, thanks in large part to our fantastic pres who thinks sending our boys to fight in a country that no longer needs us but does have a big effect on oil prices, the cost of our very existence is out of our price range. There was a time when folks could afford to put gas in their car and buy groceries in the same week. But since the middle east isn't making enough of a profit and the insurance companies need bigger buildings, we, the little people, get to realize the true meaning of global warming. Our money warms the hands of the politician in the form of higher taxes so that congress gets bigger raises. It warms the insurance company so they can build fancier buildings and send out more junk mail and it warms the doctors hands so he can make us take more pills and they can then take longer and fancier vacations.